Page 126 of Set Me On Fire

“Girls are gross.” Benny wrinkled his nose, looking at Millie suspiciously until I was forced to nudge him in the shoulder. “What? They are.”

“I can spit a loogie further than any of my brothers,” Millie said, “and they’re bigger than your uncle. I can also burp my name.”

I watched in fascinated horror as she sucked in some breaths and then demonstrated just how well she could do that, belching out each syllable of her name.

“Whoa… can you teach us how to do that?” the boys said in wonder.

Astrid was just wondering what the hell I was doing, staring at me meaningfully, but hey, the rules of adulthood meant that she couldn’t quiz me on all the details right now. I was going to take advantage of that.

“We’ll be back in a few hours with two tired kids who’ve had sunscreen applied every hour, I promise.” I ducked forward and pressed a quick peck to Astrid’s cheek, feeling the muscle tension there before pulling back. “In the back, boys. Seatbelts on.”

Astrid’s hands didn’t drop from her hips as we pulled away from her place and headed towards Tree Climb.

“Can we get KFC for lunch?”Benny asked, craning his neck as we drove past the takeaway outlet.

“Nah, Maccas. I want a thick shake.”

“You’re not getting anything if you don’t behave yourselves.”

Holy crap, why did I turn into my dad the moment I was around the boys? The sulky looks from the backseat were a perfect replica of my own at that age. Astrid would’ve already been nudging me, prompting me to behave. It was only Millie’s amused look from the passenger side seat that had my heart lightening. Any time I had her eyes on me was a good time.

“We’re going to Tree Climb for an hour or two, then we’ll discuss where we’re going to lunch as a group, and we’ll vote on which place to go to,” I told them.

“So do you like thick shakes, Auntie Millie?” Billy asked oh so casually. She’d been given that title without prompting from me.

“I do,” she replied. “I also like chicken and burgers and pizza… Way too many junk foods.”

“Do you get to eat takeaway every night when you’re an adult?” Billy asked her.

“You can,” Millie admitted, earning her a warning look from me. She just smiled. “But it's really expensive and not very good for you. Pretty sure they’re a ‘sometimes food.’ You would’ve learned about that in school.”

“Ugh…” Billy threw himself back in his seat. “Everything good is a sometimes thing.”

“That’s what makes it good,” she added. “If you had it all the time, it’s just get boring, like eating bowls of oatmeal.”

“Eww!” the boys cried.

“Or broccoli?”

“Yuck. I hate broccoli.”

“Or spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.”

The boys settled at that.

“We like spag bol. Mum makes it really good.”

“Good to know,” Millie said with a nod. “Maybe we should go to a pasta place for lunch?”

Their howls of protest had her cackling, and that’s when I knew everything would be OK.

“Hey, wait for us!”I shouted at the boys.

We’d sat through the orientation session, learning how to use the ropes and the carabiners to traverse the course. There were different levels of difficulty, and the boys wanted to do the hardest levels, naturally. Together we’d negotiated a plan, but that moment of cohesion seemed to fall apart the moment we got near the course. The boys went running off to the starting point, forcing me to stiffen, but Millie put a hand on my arm.

“They can’t start without us.” She nodded to the people running the place. They directed the boys to stand aside, looking around for us before they were allowed to enter the course.

“Yeah, but they could at least pretend to listen to me,” I grumbled.

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